Ice cube tray grid



Jan. 17, 1939. P. CROSLEY, JR ,9

' ICE CUBE TRAY GRID Filed Aug. 8, 1938 3nventor attorney:

Patented Jan. 17, 1939 PATENT OFFICE ICE CUBE TRAY cam Powel Crosley, Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to The Crosley Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio, a.

corporation of Ohio Application August. s, 1938, Serial No. 223,608

1 Claim.

This invention relates to grids for ice cube trays which are conventionally used to cause the ice frozen in the trays to be frozen in a number of small cubes rather than in one large block. More. particularly this invention relates to a grid which is adapted to be manipulated for freeing the ice cubes therefrom in a simple'and economical way.

Conventional procedures in freeing cubes from an ice tray involve holding the'tray under either hot or-cold water until the block of ice which is frozen around the grid is freed from the tray, and then running either hot or cold water 'over the block in which the grid is frozen until the individual cubes are freed from the grid. This procedure is relatively slow and is unpleasant because it involves holding the 'ice cubes which makes the hands uncomfortably cold and because it involves the use of considerable amounts of Water.

Furthermore, such procedures are objectionable because they are wasteful not only of water but of ice and of electricity. When it is desired to use a smallnumber of cubes from a tray, it is necessary to free all the cubes as above outlined and the remaining cubes are therefore wasted. Then when fresh water is put into the tray and the tray is putback into the refrigerator, additional electric current is required to freeze the water.

It is another object of my invention to provide a device as above outlined, which renders it possible to free'a small number of cubes and y l r Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along the which will permit the unused cubes to remain in position so that the tray containing the unused cubes may be placed in the refrigerator so that the cubes are not wasted and no excess power is required to freeze the entire tray of water.-

It is another object of my invention to provide a device of the character described which will cause the cubes to break free of the tray but will still permit them to be retained within the grid, so that the cubes may be individually and manually removed from the grid, and so that unused cubes will remain in the grid, thus rendering it easy to replace them in the tray.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a device as above outlined which will be easy to dissemble and therefore to clean, in that the entire device may be taken apart and put together again in a matter of seconds. It is also an object of my invention to provide a device as above described in which only a small movement of the breaking element is required to free the cubes.

It is a further object of my invention to provide an upright V-shaped divider, the side walls of which are relatively flexible about a flexing line extending along the apex of the V, and to provide a pan having flexible side walls which will permit the ice cubes to be moved outwardly from the divider parallel with the bottom wall of the pan so that relative flexing of the side walls of the divider will release the ice cubes from the bottom of the pan without elevating the same, this manipulation further releasing the cubes from adhering to the cross walls of the grid,

whereby the grid may be removed from the pan, leaving the ice cubes within the pan.

Generally speaking, my objects include the provision of a grid which will be simple and in expensive and of universal application, which will render it possible to free the ice cubes very rapidly and without the use of water, so that the cubes when ready for use will still be substantially as cold as they were in the refrigerator (which may be about 20 F.) and shall not have melted to any extent so as to become smaller in mass.

These and other objects of my invention I accomplish by that construction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe an exemplary embodiment.

Reference is now made to the drawing forming a part hereof, and in which:-,-

Figure 1 is a plan view of an ice cube tray and grid according to my invention.

Fig. -2 is a partial cross sectional view taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but showing the breaking element turned slightly'to breaking position. a

. Fig. 5 is a partial perspective view of the grid showing the manner in which the fins are held together. L Briefly, in the practice of my invention, I provide a tray or pan l, which is conventional in all respects except that it is provided with notches 2 at the top of its shorter or end walls.

The grid itself is composed of a central longitudinal divider 3 which is of substantially V- shaped cross section, the apex being at the bottom. The walls of the divider flex along a line extending along the apex of the V; The member 3 is slotted at intervals as shown at 4, and these slots carry the transverse fins 5 which are themselves slotted as indicated at 6. The fins 5 are held in position along the divider 3 by the interengagement of the respective slots. The

fins 5 are relatively stifi and of slightlytapering shape, tapering from the top to the bottomand sides.

The actuating member is shown at I and comprises a cam rod or cam'bar of non-circular cross section. The shape of this member need not be that shown in the drawing so long as one contacting walls of the individual cubes.

transverse dimension is smaller than another transverse dimension. The member I is retained in position in Fig. 3 by the upperedges of the divider 3 which are inturned as indicated at 8. The walls of the divider are on a tension tending to close together so that the cam bar is frictionally held in position, as indicated.

It will now be clear that the member I when in position retains the fins 5 in operative position so that they cannot become displaced, while at the same time the entire unit may be dissembled bysimply withdrawing the member I and lifting out the respective fins 5.

Any desired means may be provided for turning the member I. I have shown this member bent at right angles, as shown at 9, and as indicated in Fig. 1, I prefer to provide a handle or tool In which is simply a lever with a socket adapted to slip over the portion 9 of the member I. It now the tool I is placed upon the portion 9, the member I may be slightly turned or rotated as indicated in Fig. 4. This causes the two sides of the divider 3 to be spread apart, as shown in Fig. 4,"whereby the ice cubes are forced outwardly parallel with a sort of wedging action and are caused to break loose. As shown in Fig. 5,-in order to assistin this wedging 'action I prefer to cause thefins to be tapered so that their thinnest portion is at the line indi-. cated at 5a, while they are thickest at the line of the slot 6. It is also to .be understood that the slot is made sufliciently wide to allow for a spreading of the divider 3.

I have found in actual practice that the block of ice within the tray is freed from contact with the bottom wall of the tray while theindividual mdvement of the walls of the divider, as they are "spread apart, alsoreleases the attachment of the after a manipulation of the cam bar the cubes are released from all their enclosing walls. ordinarily'if the cam bar is permitted to remain in the position with the walls ofthe divider spread within the pan.

wide apart, the entire grid may be removed and the cubes will come out with the grid, to be removed manually by applying the finger against each individual cube and removing the number of cubes desired. However, if the cam bar is, after manipulation, turned back to its starting position as shown in Fig. 5, then the grid may be removed from the pan, leaving the cubes in the pan'. e vWhile it would be possible to provide a handle instead of the member 9, I find it cheaper to provide a tool I, as above described, so that if two or more trays are used in a refrigerator it is only necessary to provide a handle which may be used interchangeably on any of the trays.

I consider it a feature of my invention that I release the cubes from contact with all the enthe cubes to be removed with the grid or permits the grid to be removed while the cubes remain It is to be understood that modifications may be ,made without departing from the spirit of my invention, and'that I do not intendto limit myself otherwise than as pointed out in the claim which follows.

Having now fully described my invention, 'what I claim as new and de'sire'to secure by Letters Patent, is:

In combination, an ice pan of greater length than width and having thin sheet metal side walls of sufiicient flexibility to flex outwardly responsive to outward pressure against said side walls, and an ice cube grid member of the type comprising ,a notched double walled expansible dvider of upright V-shaped cross section with which relatively rigid single walled transverse fins or cross wall members have an interlocking notche'd connection forming ice cube compartments in said grid, and a rod having greater thickness in one direction than in another extending lengthwise of said divider at the open end of the V for spreading against the flexible side walls'of the pan, thereby breaking the frozen connection between ice cubes and the contacting,

walls of the divider, pan and grid, said rod providing an abutment for retaining said transverse fins in position, and being removably positioned Y between said divider wallswhereby removal thereof releases said transverse fins from interlocked engagement with said divider to permit the disassembly thereof, and an end wall of said pan being provided with a clearance notch through which said spreading rod extends to per- .mit spreading movement of said rod while said grid is within the pan.

POWEL CROSLEY, JR. 

